Fabulous Cleaners is, well….Fabulous! Drycleaning in Kenmore with a BIG Smile
Her smile is infectious and her enthusiasm is inspiring. As a customer, you always leave her dry-cleaners feeling as if your day is only going to get better. Meet Ki Suk Lim, the Owner of Fabulous Cleaners in Kenmore, WA. I’ve been bringing my dry-cleaning to her shop even before she took over ownership of the business on August 24, 2006. She remembers that day well because she only had $57 of sales. Mrs. Lim is philosophical about owning her business: “Someone up there is looking out for me!”
Â
As an immigrant from Seoul, S. Korea Mrs. Lim’s story is quintessentially American. Having arrived in America 40 years ago, she first lived in Kentucky and then moved to Oklahoma. As a city girl from Seoul, S. Korea moving to KY was a major transition. It was a totally different world: cows, farms, outhouses….. From Oklahoma her family moved to Los Angeles having heard about more opportunities there and the large Korean community. Unfortunately, they didn’t find LA to their liking. After only two weeks, they picked-up and headed for Utah because a friend told them it was a nice place to live. Fate had a different plan for them. They just happened to drive into a little place called Las Vegas and ended up purchasing a dry-cleaning business there. Knowing nothing about the business, they quickly discovered how difficult running a dry-cleaners can be: aging equipment, bills, employees, cash flow problems. Mrs. Lim said that one of the cleaning machines actually blew up and almost killed her husband: “It was in the papers it was so big!” Fortunately, they managed to become very successful in the dry-cleaning business. After her son came to the University of Washington, they decided to move to the Seattle area.
Today, Fabulous Cleaners is doing much better than that first day last August but Mrs. Lim says there are always challenges. Recently, the construction on SR522 has slowed traffic to her shop. It took a lot of hard work to rebuild a clientele after taking over the business last year. She now has many accounts with local schools cleaning their uniforms (Inglemoor HS, Bothell HS, etc.). She now has four employees and things are going well. Please support this great local business!
You can find Mrs. Lim and Fabulous Cleaners at 7818 NE Bothell Way, Kenmore, WA 98028. (425) 483-6100.
